i was reading in the paper this morning and saw that iraqi officials are pressuring the US to establish a timetable for troop withdrawl. this is not sitting well with the bush adminstration. they desire to withdrawl, but on a conditions-based platform and not one dictated to them by iraqi officials.

it appears to me that iraqi officials have come to the realization that they have to do this on their own, and not rely on the US and its military personnel. i applaud that decision, but am unsure if the US will respect it. top iraqi officials are telling their negotiation teams to be more stiff-lipped and resist any american resistance to their insistence on setting a date for us to get out.

the dance continues...

yesterday marked the beginning of the running of the bulls in pamplona, spain. no one was killed, though nine were injured. according to reports, no serious injuries though, some ribs and a head injury here and there...oh good. they're expecting a higher turnout for this upcoming weekend, where i'm sure more will run and more will get injured.

i may mock this tradition, but only because i have contemplated doing it myself. there's an allure to heating death in this manner. i would suppose it falls under 'you're not really living until you've done...' i don't know.

either way, it is nice to see cities still hold their traditions, regardless of how crazy they can be.

i would like to apologize for a couple of spelling errors in my last post...forgot to spell check.

i saw some good news today. despite the economy doing what it is, the salaries of college graduates has incresed in order to maintain a sense of competivitness. i was actually surprised to see that this was happening. many businesses are losing money every day, and their nvestors are pulling out their funding each day in the stock market.

many companies are attributing this increase in salaries for new hires, as lessons learned from the last recession. they see a need for new blood and new ideas, hoping that will help spark a turnaround for their companies. hopefully it will.

there's a lot of talk right now about the economy and had badly it's doing, but in my experience so far, where i work has not fallen victim to that. over the past several days, we've been averaging $9,000-$10,000 a day in business. i know that people are hurting but i'm not seeing them. it still seems that people have money to spend.

it may be a case, as it usually is when times are bad, that people are spending money when they have no business doing so. they put it on their credit card and plan to pay it off later, and pray that nothing happens between now and then will require their funds to be committed elsewhere...just use cash.

today is july 4th, and i would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a great holiday, and also to remind you to take a moment and think about those who have come before us, and the sacrifices they have made in order to give us what we have today. enjoy your time with friends and family.

i'm wondering, to pick up from an ealrier post, how the lack of travel will affect the economy this holiday weekend. i know that people aren't going to driving great distances to go party and whatnot, and some may not even want to spend the money to go see fireworks.

i for one, will be staying home. if i do go anywhere it will be to go to work. my father went to the grocery store to get some things for a cookout we're having tomorrow and commented on how empty the store had been. that may have been due to the time of day he went, or could be attributed to that fact that high food prices are keeping people away and they're resorting to having food that is homemade as opposed to store bought in order to save some money.